Nicolaus Zitzmann, son of Hans Zitzmann (9 February 1678 - 26 October 1741) & Margaretha Heuss (29 September 1686 - 24 March 1758), was born 5 October 1716 in Gersfeld (Röhn). He married there on 28 August 1742 to Anna Maria Strauch, daughter of Johann Strauch. Anna Maria Strauch had been born 12 May 1723 in Herchenhain.
Some of the children of Nicolaus Zitzmann were born in Dorrnhof and some in Obernhausen, small villages near Gersfeld.
Nikolaus Zitzmann, a weaver (Leineweber), his wife Maria, and children (Johann, age 21; Margaretha, age 17¼; Johannes, age 12; Balthasar, age 11; Anna, age 7; Maria, age 2¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 20 August 1766 aboard a galliot named Catharina Eleonora under the command of Skipper Peter Rehder along with Kaspar Zitzmann, a weaver (Leineweber), and his wife Kunigunda.
Nicolaus Zitzmann, his wife Anna Maria, and children (Georg, age 21; Margretha, age 17; Johann Balthasar, age 11; Margretha [again], age 7) along with the widow of Caspar Zizmann [sic] are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that father Nicolaus and daughter Margretha (age 7) died en route.
Nikolaus Zitzmann died and his widow Anna Maria remarried to Hans Kröning [See Kröning Family]. They settled in the Volga German colony of Frank on 1 September 1767. The combined Kröning/Zitzmann family is recorded on the 1767 census of Frank in Household No. 111. Oldest son Georg Zitzmann and his family are recorded on the 1767 census of Frank in Household No. 110.
Georg Zitzmann and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Frank in Household No Fk092.
The death of Georg Zitzmann in 1799 is recorded on the 1811 census of Frank in Household No. 92 along with his surviving descendants.
The widow and children of Balthasar Zitzmann are recorded on the 1798 census of Frank in Household No. Fk107.
Adam Zitzmann, son of Balthasar Zitzmann, and his family are recorded on the 1811 census of Frank in Household No. 107.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that this Zitzmann family came from the German village of Gersfeld.
- 1811 Frank Census (Households No. 92, 107).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 34.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 803.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population, and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Fk092, Fk107.
- Parish register of Gersfeld.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 437, 438.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6432, #6433.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #7330-7335, #7402.
Doris Evans
Glenn Sitzman
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai